Without You
by KikyousDream
Summary: What if the unthinkable happened? No body can be complete forever, and yet I cling to your memory...Won't you come back to me? My heart weeps without you.


Prologue

Even demons and angels succumb to the devil. Erwin sat idly on his horse, watching and waiting with his hear throbbing in his chest. He could feel a pain searing through his mind and body, and the face of pure horror was etched into his stone cold face. It had all happened like a surreal dream. Many times before, countless times he had watched his soldiers and comrades rally into the frivolous battle that as fought against the Titan menace. He would lead an army of high flying, brave souls charging to their deaths and he would return with nearly half the men and women he started out with. There were a few he had made a personal connection with, and several that had lasted for two or three exowall expeditions. But in the end most men would be dead eventually. Erwin often wondered how he had managed to survive all these years and all these jaunts into the unknown. It was foolish for him to wonder however, but he always knew the answer: Levi was his protector.

Erwin's horse grew restless, perhaps the beast understood or sensed his rider's anguish and dismay. The man's gloved, soul hand was quivering and struggling to hold onto the horse's reigns. Over the years it had grown easier to controls one's emotions when the throes of death reigned all around. The Titans had no compassion and no concept of mercy. The plucked humans from the ground and from the sky without a single thought, much like a human severed a grape from its vine. Their jaws crushed without prejudice, without reason and brutally snuffed the lives out of anyone unlucky enough to be caught. Erwin had witnessed more soldiers and civilians be killed and consumed than he cared to admit, and through all this death and mayhem, it had become easy to turn his mind off to the despair of it all. However, this time was different.

Levi was an Achilles among men. His skills went unmatched and were paralleled to that of a champion of old. Erwin always prided himself and discovering this "Diamond in the Rough". He had searched long and hard for the man who would lead mankind towards a victory. Levi, despite initial differences and suffering heavy losses, had since grown to be Erwin's right and man; a second to his command of the Scout Regiment. Erwin even admitted candidly to himself that he had grown rather fond of the man. Levi was quit minded and physically agile and was the prime example of the greatness of the branch of the military with the highest causalities.

It was a strange desire that Erwin held for Levi. One he wasn't always ready to admit. But it was too late to be thinking along those lines at this moment. Titans were at every turn in the fields outside of the wall, and there was a lethal atmosphere threatening to engulf the land. In the moments before the situation that was unfolding before Erwin's eyes occurred, Levi had leaped off his own horse with his gear shining in the sun. He had flown vertically into the sky with his swords drawn and face in a simple scowl. Erwin often tried to remain straight faced when Levi danced through the air like a god on wings, but in reality he was awed by the beauty. A fifteen meter class titan had come swiping at Erwin, and though he was a skilled fighter in every way, without his arm, he was vulnerable and helpless. When they had left on their current expedition, Erwin had told Levi privately that he planned to sit this one out. He was a liability to the other soldiers. Levi had cursed Erwin for his impudence, and in a strange unspoken act, Levi had gripped his superior's hand in a way that made ice course through Erwin's veins.

"You will be protected."

Levi had said. Those words turned over in Erwin's head, threatening to burst at the seams. Levi had taken off to protect his leader and comrade. He was totally confident in his skills and abilities, and feared nothing when he first engaged the titan. It was when he was ready for the kill and was in the split seconds of his signature move that the horror began. There were Titans in the world that were known as "abnormals". These were Titans that had abilities that did not follow into the norm of the usual stomping buffoons of titans. They were either quicker or cleverer in their plight for human flesh. This Titan was one of those variants. It had watched Levi twist and spin and position his swords like a cat watched a fly zip through the air. Levi let his body spin into a lethal pirouette, his swords flashed. In a blinding second it had looked like Levi was going to make contact with the Titan's weak spot on the nape of his neck, but the blade never grazed their target. The unthinkable happened.

The titan was fast, and had anticipated where Levi was going to descend. It had reached up its hand and snatched Levi out of the air. For a second everything was still. Levi had no idea that he was caught. He made no move to escape or struggle. Erwin had to catch his breath as Levi's consciousness finally came into light of the situation. The man was small, miniscule compared the average man, with the slight appearance of a dancer or an artistic athlete. He fit so insignificantly in between the index finger and thumb of the titan, like a pen rested in the hand of a human. The pressure the titan held on Levi coupled with the surprise of being stopped in mid attack, caused Levi to let his blades fall fifteen meters to the ground below. The Titan held onto Levi, looking at him with a strange curiosity as if he was interested in studying his food before he consumed it.

Levi struggled and Erwin froze. He was one armed. He could take his gear and fly up there, but he could not draw his sword to make a kill. The Titan squeezed his fingers, and despite the distance, Erwin could hear Levi's ribs crack under the pressure. His eyes were wide and filled with a terror that Erwin had never seen strike the man's face. The Titan, who seemed to be toying with his pray, slowly tightened his pinch, gradually crushing the tiny human.

Another crack and Levi let out a sickening whimper, his eyes fell from terror into a frenzied and wild glance. Blood was being forced into his face and it began to swell and balloon in his face; a small stream began to trickle out of his mouth. Another pinch and Levi's head slumped foreword and he was limp, but he still continued to moan.

"Commander Erwin!"

Erwin snapped around as if he was being pulled out of a deep trance. Hange and a group of other soldiers had rounded a cluster of abandoned buildings and were on this murderous titan quicker than Erwin could realize what was going on. He didn't acknowledge Hange, his eye never left Levi's broken and mangled body. The soldiers who had come to the rescue took the titan down in minutes. Levi fell to the ground in a cold, dead pile.


End file.
